pork belly

Twenty-sixth Day of Lent

My good friends Missy & Beaudon – and their sons Alex & Chase – got in town today, visiting from Longwood for the weekend.  They met me, Susan, & Meredith at my favorite happy hour spot – Salt7 – for some cocktails and apps before headed to dinner after Casey, Roger, and Katelynne got there.

Today’s choice for dinner was Racks Fish House & Oyster Bar.  I honestly have never dined there for dinner – only for a stone crab claw at the bar once.  I was impressed by the menu and the extensive bar selection.

I started with the raw bar – in the steam kettles they make a daily preparation of mussels.  Today’s preparation was in a white wine, butter, & garlic sauce with jalepenos and andouille sausage.   Very tasty – I could have used more sausage though.  After all – I gave up bacon for Lent… ha!  (Missy got the same thing but without the sausage… I asked for her sausage)

mussels

For our entree, Susan and I split the seared scallops & pork belly – now that’s more like it.  This came in a vanilla puree, mushrooms, and a truffle shallot jus.  The scallops were huge!

scallops

I washed it down with a couple IPAs, Susan had a couple glasses of pinot grigio.  Nice evening with some good friends!

Sixth Day of Lent

It’s February 24, 2015… also known as Taco Tuesday – that day of the week where restaurants try to draw in more customers with taco specials.  We see it as a time to get some great meat eats!

We decided to hit one of Delray Beach’s favorites for Taco Tuesday, a place called El Camino.  On Tuesdays, their entire taco offering is $2 each, and the place is packed all day.  And El Camino doesn’t serve your Americanized, “hard shell with tomato and lettuce and cheddar cheese” tacos.  These are built with house-made corn tortillas and love.

First we went with our favorite, the Barbacoa:  brisket, cilantro, queso fresco, onions, and salsa borracha:barbacoa

Now, because we’re craving bacon, we’ll have some pork… next is the Carnitas:  spicy braised pork, morita salsa, and queso fresco:

carnitas

Finally, the Pork Belly.  Now, some of you might say, “Well, bacon is pork belly!”  We reply, “Hey – it isn’t cured in sodium nitrite.”  This Pork Belly Al Pastor is made with annatto, N.M. red chile, onions, and pineapple-arbol salsa:

pork_belly

We could have kept on going down their taco menu, but had other places to be.  Plus, the cocktails at the bar are out of this world, so you gotta check El Camino out – Lent or no Lent.